While building his rustic-contemporary home along a leafy street in Parkallen, Ross Mitchell yearned to follow the advice of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and bring the outside indoors.

As it turned out, the house provided plenty of opportunities for Mitchell and his mother, an artist and designer, to reflect the philosophy of the much-admired American pioneer of the modern esthetic. It’s in the infill’s big touches, such as large windows, simply dressed, that afford a tempting view of the streetscape from each of the home’s three levels. And it’s in the small flourishes, including smooth river stones gathered along the windowsill, and spare branches artfully arranged in tall, glass vases. The fireplace on the main floor is studded with the same rough-hewn stone that adorns the exterior, creating an echo of modern Prairie Style that is the home’s hallmark.

“It’s an organic, rolling feel,” says Mitchell.

The 37-year-old lives in the home with his wife, Jodi. But the 3,300-square-foot build was a group project, brought to fruition through Environmental Earth Builder, the small design/build firm that Mitchell runs with his parents, Michelle and Andrew. The company offers customers alternatives to the cookie-cutter infills that populate so many neighbourhoods in transition. Along with Antoni Kowalczewski of Janto Engineering, it was dad Andrew, an engineer, who made his wife and son’s dream design for this home a practical reality. The home was built on the foundation of the original teardown to save money and reduce waste.

The living space on the main floor, with its nine-foot ceilings, flows effortlessly from the kitchen to a sunken dining room a few steps away, to the sitting area with the over-grouted stone fireplace at its heart. A den, where Mitchell works, is separated only by glass French doors. Eating, cooking and entertaining all happen within this public space, with two upstairs levels a peaceful retreat for sleeping, bathing, reading and watching television. In the basement is a separate 1,000-square-foot suite, complete with kitchen and its own outside entrance.

Though the home is grand in its exterior scale, the interior features small, creative and often inexpensive touches that reflect Michelle’s inimitable artistic style. The slip-covered couches on the main floor are signature Ikea, but Michelle made them her own by adding big, white buttons along the dust ruffle. Nearby, two used Louis XIV-style chairs rest gracefully, re-covered by Michelle in an elegant cream-and-taupe pattern.

Most of the furniture is in cream or white tones, and the same granite countertops are in the kitchen, bathrooms and laundry. Pillows printed with red, pink and purple splashes are tossed casually on the media room sofa, located on the top floor of the home, picking up the punch of colour radiating from red Ikea dressers in two of the four bedrooms, all on the second floor. Much of the impressionistic art on the walls was created by Michelle.

Only three colours of paint are used throughout the home: a soft cloud-white, a light taupe, and a darker taupe. In the kitchen, white Ikea drawers and cupboards in a Shaker style are built into the walls with tiered mouldings, as is the bank of cupboards in the dining room and the media centre on the top floor. The granite topping the counters and the kitchen island is grey and cream, with a bronze fleck that picks up the warm tones of the wood flooring — an exotic, deep-toned Indonesian product called kempas. Stainless steel tiles make up the backsplash, mirroring the appliances and cabinet pulls.

“You have a real sense of continuity of design throughout the house,” says Ross. “Design and architecture is all about psychology. The whole house flows and you can feel it subconsciously.”

This esthetic of flow all seems to culminate in the second-floor, master bathroom, a soothing, restful enclave. The room is round, with a double shower that opens directly into the sphere. The his-and-her sinks flank the room’s entrance. The floor, which is marble mosaic in cream and taupe, has a beach-like feel, and vertical glass tiles in the shower stall emulate rain. (The same vertical tiles are used to evoke the same natural feel in the bathroom on the main floor.)

Though Ross and Jodi don’t have children yet, they still delight at the design of one of the four bedrooms, which features a loft you must climb a ladder to reach. It would be perfect for children who dream of an indoor tree house, or, later, for teenagers who want to expand their empire.

Liane can be reached at lfaulder@edmontonjournal.com for comments or suggestions for future features on unique or beautiful homes in the Edmonton region.

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